Boat Battery Cable Size Chart

Most importantly sae wire is up to 12 percent smaller than american wire gauge awg boat cable which means that in many applications larger gauge wire must be used to stay within the voltage drop limits recommended by experts see our west advisor on marine wire size and ampacity.

Boat battery cable size chart.

This technical brief distills the information on these charts to a more manageable size for installers and boatowners alike. Terminals need to be matched to their cables. However the same sized terminals are sometimes used for more than one cable size. Greatly generalizing the topic here but you usually run into two types of batteries in the size of boat we deal with.

We ve included copper wire specifications which comply with the awg standards at the bottom. Marine battery group size chart and guide. So all interconnecting cables are 2 0 based on the chart below. Actually for my current installation i ve sized all of my dc cables to meet the 175 amp worst case scenario.

As far as i know these values are valid as of today. The manufacturers make stock battery cables as small as possible but still get the job done. I recommend building cables larger than stock. Marine outboard motor application guide.

As we mentioned earlier picking the right size of the marine battery is crucial for your boat. For safety use only wire that is marked with size and type. 141 replacement battery may be longer taller and or wider than o e. Quality marine wire as specified by abyc standards will always be stranded rather than solid and always tin plated copper.

Picking the right size of battery will make sure that it has the right dimensions that will fit in your battery compartment. Deep cycle battery capable of deep discharge without harm. 216 requires 2 batteries in parallel to meet oe specifications. For very long cables for example 15 foot long battery cables to relocate your battery go one size larger.

The two setups we most often run into is. Single engine 1 starting and 1 house battery. Find the length of the circuit on the vertical axis of the chart noting that the length is the round trip distance from the panel or battery to the load and back. In larger sizes each cable has matching terminals.

Going up a size or 2 is worth it in the long run. Cable size ampacity chart. In addition the dc wire selection chart shown below assumes a wire insulation rating of 105 c. A 16 gauge cable needs a 16 gauge terminal.

Replacement of tray hold down or battery box may be required. Additional space box or cables may be required. Starting battery has high current rush capacity. The wire size listed in the graph at the intersection denotes the gauge of wire to use.

Red terminals fit 22 to 18 gauge cables blue terminals 16 to 14 gauge cables and yellow terminals 12 to 10 gauge cables. Most of the cost is the ends and labor.